Purple Thistle

[SIman]

Day one of the Purple Thistle in South Glen Affric was tough with very few runners getting close to 10min/km. Conditions were near ideal with only a few, admittedly heavy, showers catching the later starters. Even the midges were reasonably scarce.

The Mighty Thistle 12.7km was won by Mark Nixon in a remarkable 1:40, 14 minutes ahead of Dave Godfree and who beat Jon Musgrave by 2 minutes. Mark's Run was the more remarkable as yesterday he ran the 1999 WOC classic route in 2:20 Sarah Dunn was the first woman and Simon Gardener got a special prize for persistence - 4:04

The Big Thistle was won by by Steve Nicholson in an impressive 1:25, ten minutes ahead of Duncan Grassie and a further 6 minutes back, Nick Green. Helen Gardner finished in 1:49.

In the Medium Thistle (misnamed in my opinion) Graham McIntyre won in 1:04 for the 5.4 km. Lena Kask amd Fran Hoare were 2nd and 3rd.

The Small Thistle was won be Florence Haines with Morag McIntyre and Morven Dean also received prizes.

Sasha Cheplin won the 3.5km Baby Thistle at 10.5 min/km and Max Ledlie was 2nd.

Brooner said that tomorrow's times should be shorter - but then added that there was a bit more climb!

[Godders]

Another excellent day's orienteering today.

Many thanks to Brooner & co for all their hard work.

[rascrutt]

Here, here. Very technical, very tough. Well done Brooner & Co. Would have been a great event for SEDS or even "warm-down" get-together for GB squads?

[Niall]

Fantastic weekend - cheers for the all the hard work Brooner, Beckie, Stew, Ed, Andy.........

Roll on next year when I might be able to run in the terrain.

[EddieH]

I can only concur with other comments. WHAT A GREAT EFFORT from the team, particularly Brooner who must have put in over 100 hours of effort.

The forest is definitely not as runnable as it was in 1999/2000, but what a great technical challenge.

[DesignatedDriver]

and thanks also to mharky, meatmarket and french squatter for collecting controls - you certainly deserved every caterpillar cake you munched on over the weekend


Brooner, Wattok and Becky - thank you kindly. roll on the next one which will be bigger, better and more barebones than before....

[pyrat]

Yeah thanks a lot for a great weekend of orienteering.

desigdriver: Yeah the rear end of your car was hanging a bit low as we sped through those country roads.

Bring on next year!

[RJ]

A great weekend.... tough, exhausting, wonderful terrain.... many thanks for the opportunity to run there. I have just found my maps from Highland 99.... Plodda looks surprisingly familiar!

I will definitely be back another year. Please find a nice runnable forest.... technical as well of course!

[mharky]

an awesome weekend, many thanks to many people, especially brooner and becky, wattok, brandstifter, Big D, and Le Fox. One of the best weekends of orienteering I have ever done.

[Wattok]

Thanks to all who helped out over the NTW and PT - legends! Thanks especailly to becks and designatedriver without whom the event would not have been possible. Well done Broon dog for organising yet another successful PT...

...the biggest thanks has to go to the competitors as you make the event, so thanks to all who turned up to the PT 06!

[DesignatedDriver]

Always a pleasure, never a chore.


by the way, the car made it through its service, so suspension must be okay....

probably

[swat]

Here's some more heartfelt thanks to everyone for organising a great weekend. Tough but absorbing orienteering meant the (extended) times out in the forest just flew by. Definitely worth the drive!

[brooner]

by the way, the car made it through its service, so suspension must be okay....

Becks' car had its MOT today, brakes & bearings buggered...

as for event results, they may take some time...

i don't want to face emit again

[brooner]

very provisional results available here.